Monday, August 22, 2011

More Blue Ribbon Recipes

When it came time to make jelly this year, I experimented with several different recipes. The following wine jelly recipes were based from the Cranberry Wine Jelly & the Chablis Jelly from the100th Anniversary Edition of Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving and the White Zinfandel Jelly recipe from the American Country Living Canning and Preserving Book by Linda Ferrari. I've changed up the wines and juices to make the flavors I wanted and added Jell-O in two of the recipes for more flavor and added color (note the difference in color bewteen the two peach jellies- one is almost clear while the other turned out to be a light peach color). If you have a favorite local wine, I think these recipes would be a great way to try them out using red wines with darker juices and white wines for lighter juices. Below are the modified recipes and all received blue ribbons at the 2011 San Juan County Fair.

White Cranberry Peach Sur Lies Jelly I
Cranberry Peach Sur Lies Jelly I
2 cups White Cranberry-Peach juice cocktail
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 pouch liquid pectin
1/4 cup Chardonnay (I used a wine we brought back from the Biltmore Estate called American Chardonnay Sur Lies- hence the name of this jelly.)

Combine cranberry juice cocktail and sugar in a large saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves.
Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
Stir in liquid pectin.
Return to a rolling boil.
Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat.
Stir in wine and skim foam if necessary.
Ladle hot jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust two piece caps.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

White Cranberry Peach Sur Lies Jelly II
Cranberry Peach Sur Lies Jelly II
2 1/2 cups White Cranberry-Peach juice cocktail
1 cup Chardonnay (same wine as above)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin
1 small box of Peach Jell-O
4 1/2 cups sugar

Combine wine and lemon juice in large saucepan; stir in powdered pectin and Jell-O.
Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved.
Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat.
Skim foam if necessary.
Ladle hot jelly into jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust two-piece caps.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Strawberry Zinfandel Jelly
Strawberry Zinfandel Jelly
3 1/2 cups Strawberry Zinfandel Wine
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin
1 small box of Strawberry Jell-O
4 1/2 cups sugar

Combine wine and lemon juice in large saucepan; stir in powdered pectin and Jell-O.
Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved.
Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat.
Skim foam if necessary.
Ladle hot jelly into jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust two-piece caps.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Lavender Jelly- from Howling Duck Ranch
Lavender Jelly
I love just about anything with lavender and since I didn't have any cookbooks that had a lavender jelly recipe without using wine or apple juice as a base, I went searching for one on the internet. The one from Howling Duck Ranch was perfect and very tasty! I wanted more of purple tinted jelly, so the only thing I did differntly was add 2 drops of blue and 1 drop of red food coloring when I stirred in the lemon juice and pectin. It also received a blue ribbon at the 2011 San Juan County Fair! Be sure to check out the bit of history regarding Queen Elizabeth the I and lavender jelly. I found it to be very interesting!

Stay tuned, I'll be adding more blue ribbon recipes soon!

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